Police pursue ink trail over assault

Looking for priest's attacker

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Police have been visiting tattoo parlours this week in the hope of identifying the man who attacked Taranaki Base Hospital chaplain Murray Elliot.

The man, said to be in his early 20s, has a distinctive sunray tattoo near his left eye and police had hoped a Taranaki tattooist had inked it.

However, Sergeant Bruce Irvine said so far there had been no luck identifying or locating the man.

"There are a few people with a tattoo around their eye like the one from A Clockwork Orange but we have been able to eliminate them as suspects," he said.

Police have been hunting for the man since Thursday when he entered the chapel at Taranaki Base Hospital and demanded money from the collection box around 8.40am.

Elliot refused and the man attacked him cutting his face and arm with a box-cutter knife and hit him over the head with a stick.

Elliot was treated and discharged from hospital and is now recuperating.

When last seen, Elliot's attacker was described as wearing a black hoodie, black pants with white stripes and black fingerless gloves. He is said to be a European, about 1.78 metres tall with short hair and the tattoo near his left eye.